After last night's show, I frankly didn't have high hopes for this one. Unlike the Forum, which had last year's harbinger of summer 2015 to come going for it, Sleep Train has never really churned anything but OK and adequate gigs

Anyhow:

SET I:

Farmhouse opener, Ass Handed, which was repeatedly quoted throughout the night, Ghost's first appearance since it gave me face cancer at BGCA and WoTC to close out the Set

SET II:

2001 started, which had a great groove going as it kicked off, before heading into the usual 2001 theme. I wouldn't have minded if they kept going with just what they had; only using the drumbeat from 2001 as a starting point, but it did it's thing before 46 Days, which had some tension for heading back into the chorus, followed by a damn fine and searing Trey solo.

Piper followed, and started off with some assured soloing from Trey, which steadily grows more loopy and weird, before at Page's insistence, the jam becomes more melodic and speeds up. Then Page moves over to the organ and the jam briefly soars before skidding into more rhythmic and funky territory, before Trey plays the riff to Twist, which, for much of it's duration, is very restless almost to the point of being unfocused before Page and Trey's great harmonic interplay emerges during it's last minute or so before they go back into the Twist theme.

Backwards Down the Number Line was next, and as much as I like it, it's an indicator of the Fourth Quarter (or as the last show called it, the entire show) and it always feels a little dull compared to the studio incarnation. Carini was next and it felt... I don't even know how to put my finger on it. I suppose, clumsy might be the word? The composed part was fine, but the jam section just felt off and everyone seemed a tad out of sync.

Hood is probably the best of this show, and it has an excellent peak and a fine build up. It's Hood, but it gets the job done, as does Loving Cup, which closed the set.

Page's favorite song, Sleeping Monkey, was the encore, and began with some musings from Trey about how much they enjoyed themselves and how much fun the tour was, and if there's one thing that elevates the show it's how fun it is, what with the Ass Handed quotes, but also how unabashedly sincere it is as the last show of the tour. That said, while my webcast broke during the start of Sleeping Monkey (thanks nugs), It seems that during the SBD (whether this is in jest or not), it seems Mike shed a tear or two or at least got a tad emotional after Trey's speech, which was oddly touching.

It shows just how much these four mean to each other and how much they value their time together, and while I've often railed against people judging shows notwithstanding the music but just how much fun they had or by some other moronic metric so as to avoid talking about the music, this really does bumps the show up a notch, like Trey dancing in YEM did during last night's abomination of a ''show''.

Anyway, Tweezer Reprise ( I don't get it either, but it's called ''Ass Handed Reprise'' on the LP Release, so maybe it's like the aftermath of the 12/31/99 Sand is Quadraphonic Toppling, where despite the music being completely different from Toppling it's marked it because of the quotes) closes the show and...

OVERALL:
They really tried in that second set, but it just wasn't their night. But, at least they tried, unlike last night, now my mortal enemy, and there were some good bits here and there, like the Hood and of course, the unabashed show of camaraderie at the start of and during Sleeping Monkey, and that oddly counts for a lot.

HIGHLIGHTS: Frankly none. The Hood maybe, but that'd be stretching it. The Piper, Twist and Carini jams tried, but ultimately went nowhere.

Donate to Mockingbird

Contact Us

The Mockingbird Foundation

The Mockingbird Foundation is a non-profit organization founded by Phish fans in 1996 to generate charitable proceeds from the Phish community.

And since we're entirely volunteer – with no office, salaries, or paid staff – administrative costs are less than 2% of revenues! So far, we've distributed over $1,000,000 to support music education for children – hundreds of grants in all 50 states, with more on the way.